Sands in the Hourglass
by Hakura0
Summary: Brief glances into the 'ToDei' pairing. Contain slight spoilers for timejump akatsuki lineup.
1. Chapter 1

**#01 - Ring**

The first Tobi ever saw of Deidara was his right hand, tongue lolled out and his Akatsuki ring on his index finger; A few seconds later he saw the rest of him, and within the minute Deidara was already trying to kill him.

**#02 - Hero**

Deidara was an Artist, not a hero, to himself or to the rest of the world, and Tobi'd never had a fondness for heroes.

**#03 - Memory**

At night, Tobi suffered from the nightmares of his past, and Deidara suffered from the sound of his cries.

**#04 - Box**

It took everything Deidara had to box up his emotions, wrap them in reluctance, and tie them tightly with an insult, while Tobi shook it impatiently and waited for the day it would be opened.

**#05 - Run**

No matter how long Tobi ran, his heart never beat as quickly as it did when he was with Deidara.

#06 - Hurricane

When the thunder crashed loudly and the lightning struck, Tobi gripped his partner's hand frantically, and despite the taste of leather Deidara held on tightly.

#07 - Wings

They watched as the birds beat their wings and then burst into flame as one, and Tobi felt he finally understood the beauty in Deidara's brand of art.

#08 - Cold

Eventually the time came when Deidara complained about the cold, and accepted Tobi's warmth.

#09 - Red

Red was the color of the flames, blood, clouds, and passion that were Deidara and his art, but he couldn't help to start to like Orange.

#10 - Drink

The first time Deidara got Tobi drunk it was to see under his mask, the second his cloak, and by the third he had plans to do much more then look.

#11 - Midnight

He feared the time when the clock would strike, and turn his prince back into a pumpkin.

#12 - Temptation

A year ago, nothing tempted Deidara in the slightest, but now he found himself yearning for a pair of lips he'd never seen.

#13 - View

Through his innocent pinhole view of the world, Deidara was the thing he could see to perfection.

#14 - Music

Deidara had already guessed that with his luck he'd get a partner who sang in the shower, but it was a happy surprise when he discovered Tobi had a hell of a voice.

#15 - Silk

It was one thing when Deidara discovered that Tobi'd bought him silk sheets as a gift, it was another entirely when he went into their room to discover they were on a king bed where two twins used to be.

#16 - Cover

By the time night came, Tobi didn't remember what the Leader had been angry at him for, only that he had to think of a way to thank Deidara for covering for him.

#17 - Promise

Tobi never liked promises, but when he finally heard those four words from Deidara, he returned the first three with one of his own, and swore to himself he'd keep them a truth.

#18 - Dream

Deidara once dreamt of a shattered orange mask, spilled crimson blood, and a pair of warm, soft lips against his own.

#19 - Candle

They never had a candlelit dinner, it was never a romance for either of them, more need and there and sometimes even love.

#20 - Talent

As far as Deidara knew, Tobi had no talents whatsoever; not that it mattered, he had discovered long ago that he had enough for them both.

#21 - Silence

After they have been together it is always silent, each of them slipping off into dreamless sleep as close to the other as possible.

#22 - Journey

It took a journey of miles and years for Tobi to make his way into his Akatsuki cloak; It took less then a month for Deidara to get it back off him.

#23 - Fire

Deidara's wish is to die a large, flashy, brief, artistic death by explosion; Tobi just wishes for him to rise from the ashes.

#24 - Strength

Tobi is not strong in ninjutsu, taijutsu, or genjutsu, but he is strong enough to carry Deidara away from a battle if he is hurt and flailing-cursing because he wants to continue his fight, and that is enough for him.

#25 - Mask

Behind his mask, Tobi hides all of the pain and fear and loneliness and emotions and reasons and regret that are why he feels he has done enough wrong to be on the same level as those in Akatsuki.

#26 - Ice

Because Tobi wants only to please, if Deidara asked for ice in his drink Tobi'd bring him a glacier, but Deidara isn't the type to ask for anything.

#27 - Fall

Tobi didn't know for what reason Deidara had fallen into Akatsuki, only that someone, somewhere was missing out enormously.

#28 - Forgotten

He sat, back against the tree, against and staring at the sky which rained on him and no one else and waited for the footsteps and the insult that would make everything stop.

#29 - Dance

The motions were sharp, brief, almost painful in their awkwardness, and he hated them but the music slowed and before he could walk away in disgust there was only an orange/black spiral and a "Please Deidara-senpai" and he kept dancing.

#30 - Body

Tobi stared down at the thing at his feet, the blood on it and the kunai in his hand, and for a moment that felt like days the world stopped turning; Then there was a hand on his shoulder and a 'Thanks, dumbass' and the first life he had ever taken lost it's significance, because /he/ was alright.

#31 - Sacred

In the end, bloody and barely breathing Deidara could focus on nothing but the fact that the almost sacred union of boy and mask was broken.

#32 - Farewells

Deidara's idea of a goodbye was telling Tobi not to get himself killed, then leaving to the battlefield before the boy managed to say anything that would make him take it back.

#33 - World

Tobi looked at the world through a rose-colored eye hole, while Deidara found the art within the bloodstains.

#34 - Formal

But they lived in a world where there was no dance to go to, and the only time people dressed up was for weddings and funerals.

#35 - Fever

All around Deidara there was nothing but heat and a sort of fog that hung before his eyes; then there were words he couldn't make sense of, something hard and smooth and cold against his head and sleep.

#36 - Laugh

Despite his cheerful demeanor, Deidara realized that he'd never heard Tobi laugh.

#37 - Lies

"Of course Leader-sama, it's no problem at all if you assign me to a different partner.'

#38 - Forever

Deidara was about quick and bright and flashes, and so Tobi had begun to live in 'today', and almost forgotten the meaning of 'forever'.

#39 - Overwhelmed

And then he could see nothing but skin and he had lost all urge to paint.

#40 - Whisper

There had been something of the vastness of the place that made Tobi feel he had to whisper, and Deidara that he had to blow something up.

#41 - Wait

Deidara had never expected the day would come when Tobi was the kind of person he'd wait for.

#42 - Talk

If Tobi was idle chatter and ramblings then Deidara harsh words without any meaning and either could be seen through only by the other and so the other members saw nothing but arguments in their talks.

#43 - Search

There was something fairy-tale in the way Tobi's search for acceptance had lead to so much more.

#44 - Hope

Deidara felt it odd that Tobi was so full of hope, easily deflated with the wrong action, when he who had no reason for hope could explode at the slightest provocation.

#45 - Eclipse

Had the mask not been there to eclipse his every smile, surely Deidara would have came through on his threat to kill him by now.

#46 - Gravity

The first contact was a trip and a fall and seeing red and cursing gravity and disbelief that the mask had managed to stay on.

#47 - Highway

It is with some hesitancy unknown to either of them that they stop off the highway and onto the road less traveled.

#48 - Unknown

Deidara doesn't know if Tobi is even a shinobi, but he doubts it.

#49 - Lock

Tobi is falling, and he can't see or hear but suddenly there's a hand holding his and he's hanging and scared but suddenly there's teeth in the grip and they're locked together and all the fear evaporates and he knows he's safe.

#50 - Breathe

He sees blood and figures and the fallen and he's going to cry but he realizes _the blonde is moving__ and Tobi knows that as long as he is the one that's stopped breathing everything is alright and then the scene fades and there is nothing but relief._


	2. Chapter 2

#01 - Motion

Deidara stood and watched the slow awkward punches and kicks that Tobi called training and promised himself the boy would never have to find out just how useless they were.

#02 - Cool

Once Deidara saw Tobi standing silently, wind whipping his cloak as a storm stirred up, and if he hadn't known him he might have thought him 'cool'.

#03 - Young

They had felt hope and pain and anger and sorrow and jealousy and lust but it wasn't until they found each other that they felt young and foolish and in love.

#04 - Last

Tobi'd read his share of fairy-tales as a kid, he knew that in the end the heroes always won and according to that any thought or word or emotion might be his last so he lived in Deidara's ever-present now and forgot everything.

#05 - Wrong

In the end it was warm and full of people and heartbeats and the metal at their necks and arms and legs and waited for the pain to come and the blood to start and they were together but it was open and public and there was _cheering_ and it was all wrong.

#06 - Gentle

Deidara was never quite as gentle as the first time Tobi let him take off his mask.

#07 - One

Two was a dangerous number, easily defeated or seperated and made into nothing but loneliness, so to Tobi it was much safer to become one.

#08 - Thousand

Deidara's art wasn't about explosions, it was finding that one in a thousand four-leaf clover and making it even more glorious before it could wither and die, and Tobi understood that _sometimes_.

#09 - King

If Akatsuki were a court, Leader-sama would be king, and he and Tobi reduced to jesters.

#10 - Learn

Eventually it pained Deidara that Tobi would ever have to learn.

#11 - Blur

He'd barely seen the shuriken flying toward him, barely had time to be afraid and then there was a blur and blood and it wasn't his and he had plenty of fear.

#12 - Wait

There was pain and fear and dark but Tobi didn't know any of it, only that Deidara would come if he could wait.

#13 - Change

The first time Deidara called Tobi by name he knew something had changed, even if he was back to 'dumbass' the next day.

#14 - Command

"Stay Here" Tobi had said, and all of a sudden Deidara realized there was something in the voice and he couldn't move.

#15 - Hold

Tobi had been sick and dreaming and the nightmares had him flailing and crying-screaming and Deidara went to hold him but he jerked violently away from the touch and Deidara's heart hurt.

#16 - Need

Deidara had been numb and never expected to wake up and be found and live but then he was floating and moving and something had whispered 'I need you Deidara-sempai' and he went back to the pain and the feel of the arms trying him and he couldn't help muttering "...Dumbass..."

#17 - Vision

It was odd, he'd expected his vision to fade, so why could he see the teardrops on the boy's hard-earned cloak, and why were they there to begin with, when he could see nothing wrong with the world...?

#18 - Attention

There was something in the way that Tobi could turn his entire being's attention to you, that made Deidara unable to refuse him anything.

#19 - Soul

They blinded themselves to the souls of those they felled and so feared the time when the other would fall as well.

#20 - Picture

There was never the memory of an image when it came to Tobi, it was the touch and the warmth and the gaze he could feel locked on him that made Deidara wonder just what the use of pictures was.

#21 - Fool

He was a fool to wait so long, until it was no longer Tobi he was telling but also a vision-filling red, but Tobi had sat up and he _felt_ a smile and knew he was forgiven.

#22 - Mad

He can't stand and suddenly there is Tobi's back and he's angry and yelling and _glowing_ and between Deidara and the enemy he knows he can't handle and suddenly Deidara can stand because he's filled with some sort of widespread temper at the world for the current circumstances.

#23 - Child

Tobi was holding her, mask to the side rocking softly and Deidara felt nothing but jealously for the infant he had to kill and the ease with which she'd gotten to see his face.

#24 - Now

Deidara liked things loud and fast and bright and flashy and over, but he hated the neverending infinity of _now_.

#25 - Shadow

The were gathered to the shadow, and ordered by the shadow and would die before the shadow but that is what each had chosen for himself, and then what they had chosen to do together.

#26 - Goodbye

There was something in the utter cheerfullness of Tobi's goodbye that made Deidara realize how little he had actually known him.

#27 - Hide

Sometimes it was all to hard to hide the anger and regret and sorrow and guilt and past and hopelessness and love and lust and envy and understanding and fear behind one small swirled mask.

#28 - Fortune

Tobi had never been lucky, so he could only fathom that either Akatsuki would lead to heartache, or he'd finally managed to find the gold at the end of his rainstorm.

#29 - Safe

Tobi somehow knew from the start that Deidara was in someway safe, that it would be okay to play through his false braggery and still live to see the next day.

#30 - Ghost

'It was at least as big as a house, probably larger, white and glowing with massive claws but I,' Tobi had started telling his teammates of his great bravery, as Deidara silently folded the sheet.

#31 - Book

Deidara could read Tobi like a book; that is if he was dyslexic, as blind as Itachi, and the book was written backwards upside down, in another language and sealed shut, of course.

#32 - Eye

The had always known, that until Tobi took off his mask they'd never see eye to eye.

#33 - Never

There were so many actions and words and possibilities, they knew they'd never be able to do everything, but when they were together they never worried about it.

#34 - Sing

Tobi sang when he could, in the shower or an empty darkened room, anywhere he was alone, but for the blonde who always managed to be around the corner listening it.

#35 - Sudden

It was sudden and hot and over in a second but in the end he couldn't believe it was _Tobi_ who'd made the first move.

#36 - Stop

Tobi had trudged through land and time and people and emotions and it was everything he could dream of to have Deidara and not have to stop.

#37 - Time

It was the time of their lives but the missionless nights away from base came all sparingly and flew by quickly and all but silently.

#38 - Wash

Deidara and Tobi had different methods of washing their cloak, let it suffice to say that Tobi washed _everything_ at once, and had an audience of 1 while he was after.

#39 - Torn

After the fight was over Deidara almost _ran_ over to inspect Tobi's arm and the boy wondered why the blonde was so worried about a tear in his sleeve.

#40 - History

It was blood and hope and tears and the age old tale of lovers on a battlefield, the self sacrifice of one, and the guilty sorrow of the other, but the boy stirred and it seemed that history wouldn't repeat itself quite yet.

#41 - Power

There was little that was actually within Tobi's power, cooking and fighting and art and Deidara were all above him, but the last held down a hand and that was enough.

#42 - Bother

Tobi was loud and formal and cocky and innocent and hiding something, but the thing that bothered Deidara most was that none of that bothered him.

#43 - God

They listened to Hidan's obligatory monthly 'preachings' and occaisonal dialogues, and Tobi remained silent and Deidara wanted nothing to do with the god who'd choose Hidan for immortality.

#44 - Wall

It was sturdy, wooden, painted orange and black on one side with a high gloss, the other side sanded very nicely, and it was a perfectly fine wall if it wasn't for the fact that it was between them.

#45 - Naked

Sometimes it wasn't the matter of hiding behind the mask for Tobi, and he'd leave it on just to avoid the feeling of utter nakedness as Deidara stared at him and wondered.

#46 - Drive

It was loud beat up and clunky and metal and new and the second Tobi managed to stop it Deidara pulled him out of it and as far away as he could, swore never again and turned it into art.

#47 - Harm

They each swore the other would never be harmed and couldn't see to it that the same would happen to the thing most precious to them.

#48 - Precious

The thing Tobi held most precious was the memory of a hand in the darkness, amid a storm, and the realization of this first reassurance.

#49 - Hunger

It was like being waken up in the middle of the night and given his favorite food to sate the hunger he didn't know he'd had.

#50 - Believe

If nothing else, it was the things that Tobi whispered to him, that he could believe. 


	3. Chapter 3

#01 - Air

When Deidara gave him a clay bird of his own, Tobi decided to rethink his fear of heights.

#02 - Apples

When Tobi began giving him an apple the day after he'd learned something, Deidara began to question their 'partner' status.

#03 - Beginning

The red dawn he'd strived for had not been the end of the road as he'd thought, but the beginning.

#04 - Bugs

After a near run in with Shino, Deidara had decided his situation could have been worse; Tobi could've been an Aburame.

#05 - Coffee

The kunai-shattered cup fell from his hands to the floor and for a moment the two shared what might have been a final silence.

#06 - Dark

Deidara found himself staring into the miniscule blackhole that was the eye of the spiral of Tobi's mask, and lost himself.

#07 - Despair

Tobi awoke to find a field of bodies and cloaks under a red-clouded sky and couldn't even get the words past the lump in his throat to curse Deidara for knocking him out before the fight.

#08 - Doors

The gate was golden and shining, but Tobi turned from it and towards the gleam of blonde hair far below.

#09 - Drink

Tobi would never tell Deidara that through all the blonde's seemingly effective attempts to inebriate him, he had never once been drunk.

#10 - Duty

They listened and obeyed the Leader, unaware that all they were ever meant to achieve was death.

#11 - Earth

Tobi took the mask in his hands, and after slowly crumbling it until it returned to the Earth it came from, looked up to Deidara for judgement.

#12 - End

When he was with Deidara, Tobi remembered his mother telling him the story of the Red String and couldn't help but wonder..

#13 - Fall

Leaves and hearts and masks and walls plummeted at once, mixing together into something resembling an embrace.

#14 - Fire

Deidara's dreamed of a burning village and a dark-haired standing in the middle of the inferno smiling at him until the orange flames rose up and blocked it's face from his view.

#15 - Flexible

Soon after meeting him Deidara discovered the walls Tobi had, hidden behind his mask and demeanor, weren't made of wood or cement, but rubber.

#16 - Flying

The clay bird flew up with such a sudden, relentless burst of speed that Tobi, much to Deidara's pleasure, remained silent for the rest of the flight.

#17 - Food

Neither of them could cook, but Tobi was willing to at least and that was good enough for him.

#18 - Foot

Deidara used to wonder what was under Tobi's mask, and Tobi used to wonder if Deidara had mouths anywhere else...

#19 - Grave

Deidara never went back to where Sasori was killed, instead he'd stare at the ring on Tobi's finger, and hope his thoughts carried.

#20 - Green

Deidara had never thought Tobi'd have green eyes.

#21 - Head

Tobi thought sometimes about exactly how immortal Hidan was...

#22 - Hollow

Tobi was afraid that even if one day he let out all his secrets there'd be nothing left inside him.

#23 - Honor

Deidara scorned the hero's code, the stories of good of evil, and more recently, his own ideas of mere months ago about what was important.

#24 - Hope

It was a horrible feeling, unhelpful in every sense of the word, but they both had their moments where they clung to it tightly, usually alone.

#25 - Light

In comparison to the sun, Deidara's hair was bright, silky-smooth and didn't hurt Tobi's unmasked eyes.

#26 - Lost

Laying there, hiding, _hiding, _it wasn't until Tobi started laughing and didn't stop that Deidara realized the gravity of the situation.

#27 - Metal

They moved in rhythm to the tattoo of the raindrops on the thing tin roof.

#28 - New

The house had just been built, the wood sturdy, the paint fresh and the nails still had a silvery sheen, but within seconds it was an explosion of flames and after it stopped Deidara'd moved onto the next house without a second glance and hadn't noticed Tobi carefully looking away.

#29 - Old

The doll had been long loved, it's dress worn and it's face near rubbed away, it's hair grimy with ash, but within a few seconds he'd scooped it up quickly, and never missing a step moved onto the next house.

#30 - Peace

There was nothing for them to fight the boredom of peacetime but a fireworks stand and each other.

#31 - Poison

Deidara tried to stay out of Tobi's eyesight after the mission, for even though the boy had done as much as him for once, and he couldn't see his eyes, he could feel the poison in them all the same.

#32 - Pretty

The sky was lit up, for innocence for once and for once Tobi found the explosion prettier then Deidara did.

#33 - Rain

The rain had somehow managed to wash away the colors on the mask and Deidara thought it made Tobi look dead.

#34 - Regret

Sometimes Deidara feels guilty for not having been there to fight with Sasori, and Tobi goes off to talk to Zetsu.

#35 - Roses

The sickly-sweet smell of rotting petals lingers in the hastily left room.

#36 - Secret

Deidara whispers a truth softly in his ear, and Tobi feels as if his own unspoken words will bury him.

#37 - Snakes

He laughs at the idea that Itachi's little brother has started a group of his own, but they go to encounter them the same.

#38 - Snow

The snow was pure white, freshly fallen, and suddenly the untouched wonderland felt horribly dull to Tobi.

#39 - Solid

At one point, they touched, just to make sure the other was there, that they were there and that it wasn't a dream to wake up from.

#40 - Spring

They made camp, and the next morning when Tobi went to fill their canteens it was a hard-earned normality.

#41 - Stable

They're in no hurry, so Deidara humors him and they go the rest of the way home on horse.

#42 - Strange

There is something wrong with the silence of the forest, but the small groups doesn't notice it, doesn't notice the determined face behind a mask behind a branch with a kunai in it's hand.

#43 - Summer

The summer is hot and loud and bright, and it reminds Tobi of the blonde but it drags on to long for Deidara.

#44 - Taboo

It was Tobi's idea to never speak of things that happen during the day at night, and Deidara's to never speak of the things that happen at night during the day.

#45 - Ugly

It was a beast with no heart, three mouths, and a metal eye that brought with it fiery explosions and a spiral-faced creature with a black hole for an eye, and the people who voiced this much loud enough for them to hear were rarely able to repeat it.

#46 - War

Their hands move in quick flashes as they count silently, the projectiles hitting the ground, and then Deidara grins wildly as Tobi throws down a two and he flips over his Ace.

#47 - Water

The water was cold and wet, and Deidara'd never been a fan of it but Tobi was desperate to teach him _something_ so he grudgingly tried to learn to swim.

#48 - Welcome

Deidara decided it wasn't worth the effort to try to explain to Tobi why the hideout shouldn't have a welcome mat.

#49 - Winter

They huddled together in the back of the cave, enjoying the warmth of the other and in silent understanding that if they were discovered, it was being done grudgingly.

#50 - Wood

Deidara often thought that Tobi's head was dense as wood, but he was good at burning through his obstacles and he was up for the challenge.


End file.
